Month: March 2014

Picture the scene…You’ve been running around for weeks, maybe even months doing everything you can to try and get yourself an interview for your dream job. You have given your CV a meticulous makeover, bought a brand new “I’d be amazing at this job” suit, practiced interview questions relentlessly, got yourself a great night’s sleep and then in one foul swoop you go and ruin your chances during the interview.It’s truly a horrible feeling! The worst part is that quite often the mistake you have made has very little relevance to your ability to do the job well, however in today’s incredibly high pressured and competitive jobs market, it is just enough to swing the interviewers opinion in favour of someone else!OK, so it’s not the end of the world if this happens, but it can be a huge disappointment and a significant blow to your confidence. We’ve put together a little list of some of the things you absolutely should not do in an interview to help you avoid shooting yourself in the foot.

By Michael PetrasYour job interview etiquette–or lack of it–will not go unnoticed by respectable employers. We’ll explore 12 rules of conduct that will help you make a lasting impression on hiring authorities.Proper interview etiquette may be second nature to you; but, it’s still a good idea to do a quick self-assessment. You’d be surprised how often you are judged by your body language or other personality quirks. We all have them, but once you become aware of your mannerisms, you can over compensate for them during your interview to better reflect the real you.Fact: Nearly one-third (32%) of chief financial officers recently polled said that candidates are more likely to slip up during their interview than at any other time during the hiring process.

Little subtleties in your personality or mannerisms aren’t so little; so don’t take them for granted.

When you are looking for a new job, don’t allow yourself to be undermined by your preconceived ideas or by the advice of well-meaning but uninformed friends and colleagues. An effective job hunt requires up-to-date knowledge about how employers go about looking for talent, plus insight into the nature of the entire process.

Too often job hunters experience frustration along the way because they begin their search without examining fundamental assumptions about themselves and how they are perceived. Don’t fall prey to these five inaccurate or outdated ideas:

1. Your résumé is about you.2. A recruiter’s job is to help you get a job.3. Job seekers and employers must both sell each other on the opportunity at an interview.

4. Networking is all about obtaining help from others.

5. You can beat age discrimination by omitting dates from your résumé and LinkedIn profile.

Your resume is a very important part of your career. It is a reflection of your professional life that you have managed to create arduously over the years. When you create your resume for an internship, you need to make sure that you give all the positive vibes out of it. However, that is not the mantra of a good internship resume. Read on to know what else matters:

1. Understand a ‘resume’Before you get serious to make a resume, you need to know what exactly the difference between a resume and a CV. is. A resume is an outline of the jobs you have done, the work experience you have and what your expectations with the company are.

2. Make a presentable resumeToo much of text in a resume makes for a very dull approach during interviews. This is because HR does not have the time to go through each and every statement of your resume. Lots of words can also make the resume look shabby and congested. Include bullet points wherever necessary and write headings in bold fonts.

Dana ManciagliQuestionI just found a few positions at a company I want to work for and I even know two people who work there. I was thinking of shooting the two people my resume. Is that what I should do next?

Advice from Career Mojo

Want the short answer? No! But let me be a little more helpful.First, never, ever, ever send your resume alone when applying to a job (unless the company limits you to a strict template) or when networking for someone’s help.Here’s a better way to handle it:

Apply via the company website – with your Candidate Packet – even if you will network at the same time. Why? You need to be in the company’s system, to respect the work of HR and any recruiters involved, and to be able to tell your network contacts that you have applied.

Write a personalized letter to each of your network contacts, attaching the full cover letter/resume that you’ve already submitted to the company. Your letter to them should be professional and formatted like a business letter so the contact can forward your entire e-mail to the hiring manager or recruiter. Leave out any personal comments such as thanking them for the great party a few weeks ago or sharing that you just broke up with your girlfriend or boyfriend. In your letter, be sure to ask directly for what you would like them to do. For example: “May I ask you to please forward my credentials to the hiring manager and provide a recommendation?”

If you’re at all interested in getting a given job, you prepare thoroughly ahead of time, researching the company and position, doing practice interview questions, even choosing your interview outfit with special care. But there’s one thing you probably aren’t doing, and it might be costing you the job: odds are, you probably haven’t given a thought about how to close the interview.And we do mean “close,” in the Glengarry Glen Ross sense of the word — sort of. “There always seems to be a big debate on whether or not a candidate should try to ‘close the sale’ at the end of a job interview,” writes Lisa Quast at Forbes. “My answer is ‘Yes’ — but you need to close the interview with class.” In other words, you can’t ask outright, “So, did I get the job?” Nor should you pressure the hiring manager to tell you the precise time, down to the hour, when you can expect to hear from them. Instead, use your “closer” to find out if there’s anything lacking, so far, in their picture of you as a candidate. For example, Quast suggests asking something like … Find out the recommendation and read the rest of the article